[ReeferJon]

Was flicking through the latest Practical Boat Owner last night when I saw one of the chandlers selling a "WIB2 USB Navtex receiver" by a German company called Wetterbox.
My initial thoughts were that it would probably incorporate an internal serial to USB convertor, and would as such require a specific driver for Mac OS.



However, it turns out that this nifty little piece of kit is accessible from either Windows or OS X as a USB memory stick, with Navtex data being nicely indexed in HTML format. There's a demo device you can access here:

http://www.wetterinfobox.com/wib2demo/index.htm


What's more, the WIB2 has an internal battery which apparently lasts up to 3 days, so you don't need to have your Mac OR boat battery on.

The only disadvantage I can see with this device is that it doesn't output the standard serial stream of other Navtex decoders such as the Nasa engines which some charting programs use to integrate Navtex warnings into their systems (see my earlier post requesting this functionality in MacENC! ;-) )

Still pretty impressive, if you ask me...[url=http://www.wetterinfobox.com/wib2demo/index.htm]Full Specification Here..

[adjuvantjfoster]

SNIP http://www.wetterinfobox.com/english/index.htm
SNIP
The only disadvantage I can see with this device is that it doesn't output the standard serial stream of other Navtex decoders such as the Nasa engines which some charting programs use to integrate Navtex warnings into their systems (see my earlier post requesting this functionality in MacENC! Wink )

For those of you, like myself, who are clueless about Navtex may I recommend this link, and all of the PDF documents and further links on that site:

http://www.beaconworld.org.uk/navtex.htm

If that is too much information, I offer this from:

http://www.w3eee.com/navtex.html

What is Navtex?

"Navtex" is an informational data broadcast system for shipping; anything from weather warnings, missing or overdue boats, ice warnings, and anything which may be considered a hazard to shipping.

The transmissions are from fairly powerful stations dotted around the coastline, with largely overlapping coverage. The main transmission frequency is 518kHz, just off the end of the AM broadcast band, with a secondary LF frequency of 490kHz less used. Additionally, there is an HF channel at 4209.5kHz. The signals themselves are 170Hz Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) centered on the nominal frequency (i.e. one carrier is 85Hz below, the other 85Hz above) and at a rate of 100 bps. Data is sent 'Forward Error Corrected' (FEC), which means the same characters are sent twice, one a few characters before its repeat, interleaved with subsequent data. Tuned in with a receiver set to SSB, it sounds like a high-speed 'burbling'.